began with a k sound. I repeated his name in my head, liking the sound of it. Maybe too much.
He came forward, deeper into the shop where I stood near Maggie, and the closer he got the more self-conscious I felt. I hadn’t indulged in sexual fantasies for a long time, but Keir Culain had me cataloguing a list of things I’d never tried.
Seeing me rendered speechless, Maggie stepped in. “This is Rita Hayworth, Keir. She wants to be called Rita, but sometimes I slip and give her the deference of her office. Though she has no’ technically accepted yet.”
Keir pulled his eyes away from me and looked at Maggie. “Hasn’t accepted?”
His eyes came back to me and searched my face for clues to my soul. “Why in Hades not?” he asked bluntly.
I cleared my throat to be sure I had voice before trying to speak. “Well,” I said, “it’s a lot to consider.”
“Nonsense,” he scoffed. “You must say yes.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “Must I?”
“Without a doubt. It’s not the kind of offer one turns down.”
“So you might say it’s an offer I can’t refuse?” I teased.
What in Hades was I doing?
Flirting?
Good grief.
I found myself wishing I had traffic-stopping looks like my college roommate had. Believe me. An experience like that is enough to keep an ego in check for a lifetime.
He didn’t laugh, but he cocked his head to the side. “Hmmm. You’re unexpected.”
“Was there somethin’ in particular you were wantin’, Keir?” Maggie asked.
With a smile I’d remember in my dreams, he said, without taking his eyes away from me, “Just stopped off to get a look at the new judge.”
“Well, you’ve seen her. So, unless you want to buy somethin’…”
Maggie winked at me and I knew it was in reference to my sale of the statue to John David Weir.
“Have you had a draft of daft, Margaret?” Keir asked her. “I have far too many pieces of junk now. In fact,” he turned to me, smile back in place. “I should sell some things to you. Why don’t you come over and pick out some things?” he asked me.
“She’s no’ comin’ over to pick or price or anythin’ else without a chaperone, Keir.”
Chaperone?
I’m sure Maggie heard my silent question loud and clear as it was accompanied by my eyebrows reaching for my hairline.
“Keir thinks of himself as bein’ devastatin’ to the opposite sex,” Maggie confided.
He laughed. To me, he said, “Completely untrue. I think of myself as being reasonably attractive.”
That was the understatement of the century. And it was clear he knew it.
“I don’t think we’re shopping for new inventory. But thank you for the offer,” I said.
“Dinner at the pub then. Perhaps I can be instrumental in persuading you to accept the position.”
Maggie opened her mouth to speak, probably to tell him no, but I found that I didn’t like being shepherded. Even if her heart was in the best place.
“Yes. Dinner at the pub. Six thirty?”
“I’ll be back,” he said.
I snorted so quietly that it was audible only to me.
At the door, he threw a seductive smile back over his shoulder.
I turned to Maggie, who had judgment all over her face. “I was tryin’ to tell you he’s trouble.”
“Yes. I got that. He’s human, right?”
Maggie’s own brows came together. “Why would ye think it so?”
“I have on the shoes.”
She sighed. “So you do. Some of us are two-natured.”
“Meaning?”
“He has another side.”
“What is it?”
Before she could answer, the door opened.
“Oh, there ye are, Dolan. Come and meet, em, Rita.”
Dolan was tall and lanky with dark hair and the suggestion of a goatee. I would’ve probably thought him attractive if not for his very green, very goat-slit eyes with vertical pupils. It was an odd dichotomy. It was disconcerting and impossible to look away at the same time.
Dolan had walked closer while I was trying to figure out what he was. He held out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Magistrate.”
I swallowed and found my voice. “Thank you, Dolan. Call me Rita. I understand that you’re responsible for making broken things beautiful again.”
He gave me a lopsided smile. “Nice to be needed.”
I looked around. “Show me your favorite piece. The thing you love best in the shop.”
His eyes glittered like he hadn’t expected me to take an interest in his taste then left mine to roam over the shop. He lifted his hand, pointed toward a far corner, and moved in that direction. I followed.
We stopped in front of an object about the same size and shape